As the World Cup approaches, beer companies are deploying various strategies to capitalize on the upcoming sales peak. Recently, Tsingtao Brewery revealed during an investor event that it has launched products featuring World Cup elements and will roll out a series of consumer promotional activities centered around the tournament across different regions.
Such marketing campaigns will be integrated throughout the year. According to the plan, Tsingtao Brewery will innovate multi-scenario brand promotions this year, enhance consumer interaction, and conduct brand marketing by linking with sports events, music festivals, and other diverse scenarios to deepen emotional connections with consumers.
The core strategy remains focused on "new products, new channels, new consumer groups, new scenarios, and new demands." Tsingtao Brewery aims to explore new growth avenues around this strategy, promote the integration of online and offline marketing, and expand new retail and instant retail businesses.
In the first quarter of this year, Tsingtao Brewery's product sales volume reached 2.202 million kiloliters, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 2.61%. Among these, sales of the main Tsingtao brand reached 1.381 million kiloliters, a slight increase of 0.4% year-on-year. Sales of mid-to-high-end and above products reached 1.042 million kiloliters, a year-on-year growth of 3.1%, accounting for about 47% of total sales volume.
Structural improvements have driven profit growth. By the end of March, Tsingtao Brewery achieved total revenue of 10.285 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.54%, while net profit attributable to shareholders increased by 5.23% year-on-year to 1.8 billion yuan.
Pricing also showed improvement. In the first quarter of this year, Tsingtao Brewery's overall price per ton increased by 1.1% year-on-year to 4,671 yuan per ton, showing recovery compared to 2025.
Data shows that last year, the price per ton of the company's main brand decreased by 2.1% year-on-year to 4,980 yuan per ton, while the price per ton of other brands increased slightly by 0.9% year-on-year to 2,996 yuan per ton. Overall, the average price per ton declined by 0.7% year-on-year, corresponding to 4,162 yuan per ton.
In terms of sales, throughout 2025, Tsingtao Brewery achieved a beer sales volume of 7.648 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%. Among these, the main brand achieved sales of 4.494 million tons, mid-to-high-end and above products achieved sales of 3.318 million tons, and other brands achieved sales of 3.15 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%.
These beer products collectively generated revenue of 31.83 billion yuan for the company, a year-on-year increase of 0.79%, accounting for over 98% of total revenue. Total revenue increased by 1% year-on-year to 32.47 billion yuan, while net profit attributable to shareholders rose by 5.6% year-on-year to 4.59 billion yuan.
Regionally, last year, Tsingtao Brewery achieved revenue of 22.324 billion yuan in its home base of Shandong, a year-on-year growth of 1.04%, maintaining a significant lead. The North China region ranked second, contributing revenue of 7.864 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.78%. The East China region saw growth of 3.81%, while Hong Kong, Macau, and other overseas regions grew by 6.84%. The Southeast region was the only area to experience a decline, with a decrease of 0.83%.
Another observation is that although Tsingtao Brewery's overall operating costs declined last year, there were significant regional differences. Only Shandong and North China regions saw operating costs decrease by 1.49% and 0.74% year-on-year, respectively.
Among other regions, operating costs in East China grew by 3.08%, and in the Southeast region by 1.17%, with the latter's gross margin also declining by 1.59 percentage points. Operating costs in Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas regions saw the highest year-on-year increase, reaching 4.89%.
These developments indicate that Tsingtao Brewery's competitive advantage has weakened outside its core regions, presenting an area for the company to address.
During the earnings briefing, management stated that in 2026, Tsingtao Brewery aims to consolidate its advantage in the northern base market by expanding volume and improving structure. It will focus on achieving breakthroughs in strategic southern markets, deepen efforts in key regional markets, and steadily expand market share through management innovation, network optimization, and innovative models. In overseas markets, the company will explore international market layouts through diversified cooperation models to continuously enhance its global brand influence.
In terms of products, the company will concentrate resources on strengthening key products such as "Classic, Pure Draft, and White Beer," while accelerating the development of new segments like "Whole Wheat, Fresh Draft, Zero-Sugar Light Calorie, Craft Beer, and Alcohol-Free/Low-Alcohol" offerings.
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